We will be reading Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility this year in place of another work. Please use the following resources in order to further your understanding of the reading. If you don't have your own copy or don't want to purchase one, it's available online from the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center here: Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen . In addition, you should outline and takes notes on the three articles linked here.
Background Information
A core theme of Austen's novel is indicated by its title: Sense and Sensibility. Eighteenth century thought was preoccupied with these concepts, embodied in the philosophy of Rationalism and Enlightenment theories. Read a brief introduction to these ideas in Professor Julie Shaffer's article . Professor Shaffer is in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin.
Narration
One of the keys to understanding Austen's (or any author's) intent is keeping track of who is saying what to whom. That can be somewhat difficult in an Austen novel, as her narrator tends to appear and reappear in the dialog without much warning. For an excellent discussion of Austen's narrative technique, read Alan A. Stone's review of director Emma Thompson's film version of Sense and Sensibility . Please note that this link is actually a Google cached screen shot of a page that no longer exists on the original website. (See, what your mother told you IS true. Once you put it on the web, it NEVER really goes away.)
We will be reading Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility this year in place of another work. Please use the following resources in order to further your understanding of the reading. If you don't have your own copy or don't want to purchase one, it's available online from the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center here: Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen . In addition, you should outline and takes notes on the three articles linked here.
Background Information
A core theme of Austen's novel is indicated by its title: Sense and Sensibility. Eighteenth century thought was preoccupied with these concepts, embodied in the philosophy of Rationalism and Enlightenment theories. Read a brief introduction to these ideas in Professor Julie Shaffer's article . Professor Shaffer is in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin.
Narration
One of the keys to understanding Austen's (or any author's) intent is keeping track of who is saying what to whom. That can be somewhat difficult in an Austen novel, as her narrator tends to appear and reappear in the dialog without much warning. For an excellent discussion of Austen's narrative technique, read Alan A. Stone's review of director Emma Thompson's film version of Sense and Sensibility . Please note that this link is actually a Google cached screen shot of a page that no longer exists on the original website. (See, what your mother told you IS true. Once you put it on the web, it NEVER really goes away.)
Motifs
Gender and Patriarchy
Although presented as a book review, this article by Ellen Moody of George Mason University does a quick job of summarizing some of the novel's most prevalent themes.